Yield Guild Games, or YGG, is one of those projects that feels less like a company and more like a living community. When I talk about it, I always describe it as a digital guild where people come together to own NFTs, play games, and earn together. It started with a simple idea: players should be able to join blockchain games and benefit from them even if they can’t afford the expensive NFTs needed to begin. Instead of leaving those people out, YGG buys the NFTs, holds them in a community treasury, and then lends them to players so they can start playing and earning. That’s the heart of the story: a shared pool of game assets helping real people access virtual opportunities.
The team behind YGG includes Gabby Dizon, a long-time game industry professional; Beryl Li, a fintech entrepreneur; and an engineer known as Owl of Moistness. They began during the early Axie Infinity boom, especially after seeing how players in countries like the Philippines were using blockchain gaming to earn extra income. They realized something powerful: if gaming is becoming part of the digital economy, then communities should be able to own assets together, share value, and grow side by side instead of being on their own.
The way YGG works is pretty simple once you break it down. First, the DAO raises funds and buys NFTs from different games characters, land, items, tools, anything that has real in game value. These NFTs sit inside the YGG treasury. Then the community organizes these assets into small specialized groups called SubDAOs. Each SubDAO focuses on one game or region, so people who actually know that game can manage assets and players effectively. If someone wants to play but can’t buy the NFTs, they can join through what people call “scholarships.” YGG lends them the NFT characters or items, they play and earn tokens, and then both the player and the guild share the earnings. It’s a win-win model because the player gets access, and the guild treasury grows.
Over time, YGG expanded this model. Instead of just lending assets, they created a system of on chain vaults where people can stake YGG tokens. When the guild earns from its assets like rental fees, gameplay rewards, or staking revenue certain vaults can distribute benefits to those who have staked. The idea is to turn the guild into something like a decentralized digital economy where everyone who contributes or supports the guild can share in its success.
What makes YGG different, at least in my eyes, is its mix of community culture and financial structure. Most crypto projects feel like tech startups, but YGG feels like a social movement that turned into a DAO. They focus heavily on player education, local groups, and community driven growth rather than just speculation. Their SubDAO model makes the ecosystem flexible if a new game becomes popular, YGG can form a new SubDAO and deploy assets there. If a game starts fading, the community can shift focus. That adaptability is one of their strongest advantages.
The YGG token ties all of this together. It’s mainly used for governance meaning people who hold YGG get to vote on decisions like where the treasury invests, which new games to support, how rewards should be distributed, and what future directions the guild should take. The token can also be used for staking inside vaults, which gives it real utility within the ecosystem. People who care about the future of the guild can back it with tokens and participate in shaping it. In a way, the token becomes a membership pass, a voting right, and sometimes a rewards mechanism depending on which vaults or SubDAOs are active.
Over the years, YGG has formed partnerships with many blockchain games, NFT platforms, and Web3 networks. These partnerships help them secure early access to new games, exclusive assets, and special community programs. Because YGG was early in the play to earn wave, many game studios saw them as a gateway to building strong player bases. That early mover advantage still matters today because it gave YGG a global brand and a massive community footprint.
Of course, like any crypto or gaming project, there are risks. Game economies can collapse if players stop participating, and NFT values can crash if demand disappears. Regulation is always in the background, especially around earning models. And because YGG depends on many different games, a slowdown in the blockchain gaming sector can affect the guild as a whole. But I actually think their diversified structure multiple games, multiple SubDAOs, a large treasury, and a global community helps reduce some of these risks. They’re not tied to one single game’s fate.
Looking forward, I feel like YGG still has a lot of room to grow, especially if blockchain gaming becomes more mainstream. If more people start treating digital assets like real economic tools, then a community-owned guild makes perfect sense. The potential for guild-owned land, characters, tools, and digital businesses across multiple virtual worlds is huge. But it depends on execution how well they manage their assets, how responsibly they handle governance, and how they continue supporting real players instead of just investors.
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